Objective: (Recognize the) combination of knowledge assets from multiple sources, and assess their portability

Description: This assignment requires to analyze a complex clinical knowledge ‘artifact’, identifying its components and determining their nature and purpose.

Rationale: To facilitate their consumption, clinical knowledge is often packaged into self-contained documents.The knowledge contained therein is usually the result of the composition of several sub-pieces of knowledge. A knowledge engineer must be able to recognize the opportunity, or the necessity, to treat these sub-components as independent assets.

Instructions:

• Read the JNC8 Hypertension Guideline ‘Algorithm’ compendium. Link (Links to an external site.)
• Write a report where you will:  
  • Identify as many types of sub-components as possible (hint: consider the color coding!) and list them {5pts}
  • Choose 4 sub-components:
    • for each sub-component, discuss their ‘computational nature’ {5pts x component}, following the principles learned in the ‘Knowledge Representation module’
    • Discuss whether the component is self-contained, i.e. does it provides enough information to be used directly, or would it require additional clinical judgment and/or be constrained by the way 

In decomposing the algorithm, consider the ‘knowledge ladder’

• Term/Ontology knowledge is comprised of basic definitions that are always true (“X is Y by definition”)
• Assertional knowledge is comprised of factual statements (“X happens / is known to be related to Y”)
• Assessment / Classification / Inference logic is comprised of deductive logic (“If X then conclude Y”)
• Recommendation / Decision logic is comprised of action logic (“If X then should/could do Y”)
• Process knowledge is comprised of actions and sequences thereof (“do X, before Y, before Z”)
• Goals/Objectives are constraints/conditions on states that may or not hold at any point in time